Flipkart-owned Myntra has been looking to take its fashion brands to markets overseas across South-east Asia and Europe. On Wednesday, the fashion e-tailer announced its strike in the Middle East market through partnerships with two e-commerce platforms, noon.com and namshi.com. Noon and Namshi are both a part of a UAE-based conglomerate, Emaar group.
Myntra Chief Executive Officer Amar Nagaram, said that they also launched on Walmart Canada last year and the idea behind that was to understand the international market and how ready they were for that market. He added that it gave them exposure to international fashion trends. According to Nagaram, Myntra’s focus was on markets that are similar to India in terms of mobile internet and e-commerce penetration and population of Indian origin. Thus, they narrowed it down to the Middle East market.
Talking about the COVID-19 pandemic influencing global fashion trends and acting as a variable in the equation, Nagaram said, “Today, everybody is working from home, so it’s about more of leisure, comfort wear which is not nightwear. We have brands and serve a particular target segment in India and we are looking at markets that also carry these demographics.” He also added that the fashion company is in advanced stages of discussions with a number of partners in various parts of the world. He specifically noted that they were looking at South-east Asia as well as Europe.
noon.com is a horizontal e-commerce platform that deals in multiple categories. The brands that this platform shall offer in partnership with Myntra are Dressberry, Mast & Harbour, Moda Rapido, Here & Now, Sztori and HRX. Namshi, on the other hand, focuses primarily on premium fashion. Over the next few weeks, it will deal in brands such as Dressberry, Mast & Harbour, Wrogn and HRX. The brands and styles offered by the two firms have been chosen on the basis of regional trends as well as consumer preferences.
CEO Amar Nagaram also mentioned that they are looking at a 5X growth from these partnerships over the span of the next two years. He said that over 75% of the styles being exported by Myntra to the Middle-East market is developed in India. Thus, this partnership will allow the company to offer brands of Indian origin to millions of international shoppers as well as Indian natives in the region.